Don't hold your breath on that, BH. The next iteration, basically 'Longhorn Lite', does -not- have the new indexed HDD partitionformat scheme.....but it sure has the nifty DRM and the 3D Desktop that requires a Geforce 4 class accelerator to function.... And sympathies on your keyboard. I just lost my trusty IBM to wear and tear, and the keyboard replacing it is...sticky, shall we say? Plus it's next to impossible to find a quality QWERTY keyboard without the sexy slopes and more damnfool 'multimedia experience enhancing' buttons and sliders to get in the way and fail if a fly pisses on them. Be nice if the vendors could keep in mind that there is a solid core of clued users who neither want nor need ticky-tacky window dressing...either in hardware or software.